Heathrow joins calls for plan for reopening travel as passenger numbers plunge February 11, 2021 Heathrow Airport added its voice to calls to see a plan for rolling back the UK’s new border restrictions as passenger numbers dropped 89 per cent in January. The country’s largest airport said that it was vital that Boris Johnson include details of how international travel would restart when he lays out the government’s lockdown-lifting [...]
Uber launches same-day parcel delivery service pilot February 11, 2021 Uber has today launched a new same-day delivery service which will allow users to have their parcels chaffeur-driven to their destination. The service, which is called Uber Connect, will cost the same as ordering a regular Uber X journey. An initial pilot of the programme will begin in Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham. Jamie Heywood, regional [...]
Are vaccine passports inevitable to keep the global travel industry afloat? February 10, 2021 Transport secretary Grant Shapps today gave the clearest indication yet that people could soon be required to prove they had been vaccinated in order to travel abroad. Speaking to the BBC, he confirmed talks had been held with his counterparts in the US and Singapore over creation of an international vaccine certification system. Such a [...]
Sadiq Khan seeks permission to appeal ‘unlawful’ Streetspace ruling February 10, 2021 Sadiq Khan has today submitted an application to appeal against a High Court ruling that deemed his “Streetspace” plan illegal. Last month the court ruled that Khan had “taken advantage” of the pandemic to push through “radical changes” to London’s streets. Justice Lang said that the plan, which banned taxis from using bus lanes in [...]
Easyjet boss calls for government to share way out of new quarantine measures February 10, 2021 Easyjet’s chief executive has today called on the government to provide details of how it will relax its current border restrictions in order to give people the confidence to travel again. Yesterday ministers unveiled details of a new hotel quarantine policy, which will see travellers from 33 red-list countries forced to pay £1,750 to spend [...]
Etihad Airways will only fly with fully vaccinated crew February 10, 2021 Abu Dhabi airline Etihad Airways will only operate flights with vaccinated pilots and cabin crew, the company said on Wednesday. The airline has made a coronavirus vaccine developed by Chinese pharmaceutical group Sinopharm available to all employees, as well as the Pfizer-BioNTech jab. It is not yet clear how many cabin crew and pilots have [...]
London leaders urge government to let TfL keep £500m in vehicle duty ahead of new bailout talks February 10, 2021 The leaders of the London Assembly’s political parties have come together to urge transport secretary Grant Shapps to allow the capital to keep the £500m it raises in Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) every year. Led by Mayor Sadiq Khan, the leaders have written to the government asking that London receive its “fair share” of the [...]
Hydrogen truck firm Hyzon to go public through SPAC February 9, 2021 Fuel-cell truck firm Hyzon Motors has agreed to go public through a merger with blank-check firm Decarbonization Plus Acquisition Corp in a deal that values the startup at $2.7bn. It is the latest electric vehicle company which has chosen mergers with special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) as the route to go public instead of traditional initial [...]
Eurostar collapse would be ‘disastrous’, warns RMT February 9, 2021 The UK’s biggest union for transport workers, the RMT, has today warned the government that failing to support the Eurostar would be “disastrous” for the country. The union has launched a petition calling on transport secretary Grant Shapps to “urgently agree” assistance for the cross-Channel rail link. However, all the signs so far suggest that [...]
The Week Ahead: Look out for GDP data, Ocado, AstraZ, Twitter and Ted Baker February 8, 2021 Start your week informed: here are the announcements and results to look out for this week. UK GDP: A double dip recession is looming After a fairly decent third quarter, and an expansion of 16 per cent, the UK economy has had a much more troubled fourth quarter, with the likelihood that we may well [...]